~ Covering the Kingdom of Æthelmearc of the SCA

Æthelmearc-Sponsored Archery Tourney at SCA 50 Year

Thanks to Master Urho Waltterinen for this account of the archery tourney he ran at the SCA 50 Year Celebration.

On Tuesday, June 21st, despite the heat, the Kingdom of Æthelmearc sponsored an archery tournament created by Master Urho Waltterinen. Their Majesties of Æthelmearc, Byron and Ariella, attended and oversaw the entire tournament. Twenty-five archers, including Their Majesties’ son, Ian, participated.

In the first of three rounds, archers shot at a quartered section of the usual 60 cm target at twenty yards. They had to make a decision whether to aim at the center of this new target and risk not scoring enough points to advance or go for the gold and risk missing the target completely. In the end twelve scored high enough to advance to the next round. The high scorer was presented with a gift certificate for his achievement.

In the second, twelve archers were challenged to shoot at an unspecified target in the distance. THL Luceta di Cosimo painted a fantastical beast for them to aim at. The task to advance was to hit this target twice and the first eight to do so would advance to the final round. Archers began at about seventy yards away, fired two arrows in a coordinated mass launch and then advanced five paces forward for the next flight. The first seven archers were easily found, but three archers tied for the eighth position. His Majesty heard a suggestion from one of the archers that these three would fire two more arrows and the closest to a small escarbuncle on the target would advance and ruled that this would be the tiebreaker. The last archer advanced.

In the third and last, these elite archers returned to twenty yards and competed in a double-elimination round skillfully managed by Baroness Elizabeth Arrowsmyth as Mistress of the List. The target for this was a yin-yang in black and white merely eight inches across where each archer was assigned their color. After the pairings were determined by random draw, the rounds were shot. His Majesty was so caught up in the excitement shown by the skills of these archers that he personally assisted in the scoring of each match. At the level of prowess reached by these final competitors, mere millimeters determined success or failure.

In the last and final round, Cullen of the East and Treutvin of Calontir were matched. Cullen hit his color five of six times while Treutvin hit his color on six of six and so was declared the winner. Both finalists were awarded gift certificates and Treutvin was further presented with a scroll created by Mistress Fredeburg von Katzenellenbogen and read to the populace by Baroness Gwendolyn the Graceful.

All archers were then invited to join us again on the archery range at Pennsic.

The archers thank Their Majesties for Their attendance and for Their attention to our sport.